https://www.areyouelectronic.com/tags/writing/Recent content in writing on are you electronicHugoen-usSat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://www.areyouelectronic.com/posts/on-monospace/Sat, 25 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://www.areyouelectronic.com/posts/on-monospace/<p>Most prose on the web uses proportional fonts because that&rsquo;s what books do. But a blog isn&rsquo;t a book. The unit of writing is the paragraph, not the page, and reading speed is gated more by the screen than by the typeface.</p> <p>Monospace flips a few small things in your favor:</p> <ul> <li>The column has a natural width — about 80 characters — that you don&rsquo;t have to think about.</li> <li>Inline <code>code</code> doesn&rsquo;t visually shift the line.</li> <li>The text looks like a draft, which lowers the stakes of publishing.</li> </ul> <p>The downside is that long-form prose can feel relentless. So far the trade seems fine for short posts.</p>